Lone survivor in copter crash recalls terrible day

But he was alone, disoriented and bobbing in chilly waters off James Island the morning of July 7.

Witnesses said the MH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter Leone was co-piloting had snagged in thick power cables strung from LaPush to James Island across the mouth of the Quillayute River and tumbled into the water upside-down.

Leone’s survival vest allowed him to breathe underwater after his helicopter crashed, Leone told the Peninsula Daily News last week by phone from Coast Guard Air Station Sitka, where he is serving as the base safety officer.

But his right collarbone was broken “like a seat belt injury,” his left arm and right leg were lacerated — and his three crewmates were nowhere in sight, he said in his first interview since the incident.

Leone shot off a flare and was rescued within five to 10 minutes by Quileute Marina Harbormaster Darryl Penn and fisherman Charles Sampson, who pulled him into their motor skiff.

“I couldn’t have swam,” Leone said.

“Like any accident, everything was in extreme slow motion.

“It didn’t quite make sense to me at the time why I was the only one floating on top and couldn’t find anyone else.

“It was a terrible feeling. I felt like everyone else had already been rescued.”

Leone, of Ventura, Calif., said he would learn while recuperating at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle that his three fellow crew members had died.

They included the pilot, Lt. Sean D. Krueger, 33, of Seymour, Conn., with whom Leone attended the Coast Guard Academy in 1998.